Washington’s Influence Olympics: The 4×400 Relay

The next event in Washington’s Influence Olympics — the 4×400 meter relay — stays on the track, but this time places the limelight on the individuals lobbying the federal government rather than their firms.

Instead of having K Street’s top lobbyists compete against one another, OpenSecrets Blog constructed the ultimate lobbyist relay team based on each lobbyist’s total number of clients this year. Members of the all-lobbyist team hail from firms of all sizes in D.C.

Your all-star lobbyist relay team:

JACK BURKMAN: The first leg of the lobbyist 4×400 belongs to Jack Burkman of the firm JM Burkman and Associates, who has represented 57 different clients on Capitol Hill so far in 2012. Burkman belongs to a relatively small firm compared to the other lobbyists on the team — JM Burkman and Associates has brought in just $339,000 in lobbying income this year. Most of the firm’s top clients, such as ALC Day Solar, the telecom company In Sequence and the mining company Colorado Rare Earths, work with Burkman.

JACK STEVEN HART: Taking the baton from Burkman is Williams and Jensen lobbyist Jack Steven Hart. Hart has been representing 60 clients this year, including AARP, Comcast Corp. and Pfizer. He also represents official London Olympic sponsors Coca-Cola and Visa. Hart brings some serious government experience to the 4×400 team, having worked in the Labor Department and the Office of Budget and Management during the Carter Administration and the Attorney General’s office during the Reagan years.

H. STEWART VAN SCOYOC: With a whopping 236 clients, H. Stewart Van Scoyoc wins the honor of serving as anchor for the all-lobbyist relay team in the Influence Olympics. The founder of Van Scoyoc and Associates, which captured the bronze in the boxing competition, he is responsible for many of the firm’s big-name clients, such as Lockheed Martin, IBM and FedEx. Van Scoyoc is also the founder and president for another K Street firm, Capitol Decisions, where he lobbies the federal government for several universities and Oklahoma cities, among other entities.

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